HWU Principal's Public Engagement Prize Winners 2011

The inspired public engagement undertakings of Heriot-Watt's talented research academics was acknowledged at the Converge Challenge awards ceremony, held on Tuesday, 27th September 2011.

Taking first prize, and £2,000 to go towards his next public engagement event, Dr. Murray Roberts of the School of Life Sciences received his award from Heriot-Watt University Principal, Professor Steve Chapman. Murray's engagement centred around his website, www.lophelia.org, which has been developed to encourage users to interact and learn more about the little-known coral reefs which can be found in British waters.

Speaking after the ceremony, Murray said:

We are thrilled to win this prize - everyone in the research team has worked so hard on the website it's great to get this support. We'll be using the prize to help grow our outreach work with local schools in the Hebrides and Our Dynamic Earth here in Edinburgh.

L-R: Dr Elaine Farrow, Professor Steve Chapman, Dr Murray Roberts and Dr Stefano Padilla.

Also winning engagement awards were Dr Elaine Farrow from the School of Management and Languages, and Dr. Stefano Padilla from the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences.

Elaine took her award for her sterling work with the EdSign series and the British Sign Language users community. Deaf people are often excluded from academic and public policy debates. A particular aim of her work is to encourage capacity building amongst Deaf academics, to provide a discussion point for their work and a way in to academic debates for Deaf people in the wider community.

Stefano's efforts to engage with wider public revolved around the development of Shoogleit, (www.shoogleit.com), a technology developed at Heriot-Watt.  Stefano has used this interactive technology to engage a wider audience, and has worked with galleries and shops to engage and encourage participation, and develop an eye catching way to market products online.

To hear more from the three award winners, please visit the Converge Challenge YouTube channel at http://tiny.cc/hwuppep